Rating: 
Summary: Well written book about the Italian people
Review: I enjoyed the book, The Italians. Eventhough Barzini was a newspaper journalist, it seems he was in the business of writing about the social sciences. While reading this book, it dawned on me that many of Barzini's theories and precepts are nothing more than ideas. Of course, Barzini was Italian and I am sure many of his conclusions are accurate. However, some of this book has to be taken with a "grain of salt". Barzini, educated at Columbia University, has a witty and thorough style of writing. He makes this book very easy to read and enjoyable. I recommend this book to anyone looking to understand the makeup of the Italian people. It's important to keep one thing in mind before reading this book, it was not written by a sociologist - but by a journalist.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like books about unicorns, read this
Review: I'll put my opinion first, so there won't be any doubt in your mind. I don't believe that you can write useful books about national character. Is there really such a thing as "national character"? People are just too different, too unpredictable. How well can you predict the behavior of the people closest to you ? How well can you predict what people in your own country will do ? Would every Italian, if they could write well, have written the same book as Mr. Barzini ? I seriously doubt it. So what we have in THE ITALIANS is one man's views on the conglomerate nature of 50 million Italians. After reading it, I felt even more strongly that such books, though possibly entertaining, are a waste of time. An informative book about unicorns--but do they exist ? Anthropologists have been concerned, for many years, in getting the "inside view"--the view of a culture as seen by the person within it. While Barzini is indisputable Italian, he tries to visualize Italians as seen by foreign visitors, then explain to those of us not lucky enough to travel there, why they are as visitors see them, or why they are not as foreigners may think. This is not a successful gambit. Cultures are based on many general factors--like history, socio-economic patterns, religion, family, etc.---but the specific results are just that, specific. Barzini covers many topics--the importance of spectacle and giving an illusion of something rather than actually having that quality; the family vs. the state; Italian modes of achieving success; the north-south split; Sicily and the Mafia; and last, the tragedy of Italy's long domination by foreigners. But nothing really connects. There are only superficial, scattered impressions, nothing very concrete to grasp. The reader is left with a handful of stereotypes. Barzini is at his best when describing the lives and modus operandi of particular characters in Italian history. These sections were well-written and interesting. But his portrayal of Italian "character" is fuzzy, contradictory, and ultimately, unconvincing. Finally, if you are a lover of lists, you will thrill to this book, because there is a list on nearly every single page. Myself, I got pretty tired of those lists. If you want to know something useful about Italy, read another book. If you just want entertainment, which might support any stereotypes you have about Italians, then this book could be for you.
Rating:
Summary: If you like books about unicorns, read this
Review: I'll put my opinion first, so there won't be any doubt in your mind. I don't believe that you can write useful books about national character. Is there really such a thing as "national character"? People are just too different, too unpredictable. How well can you predict the behavior of the people closest to you ? How well can you predict what people in your own country will do ? Would every Italian, if they could write well, have written the same book as Mr. Barzini ? I seriously doubt it. So what we have in THE ITALIANS is one man's views on the conglomerate nature of 50 million Italians. After reading it, I felt even more strongly that such books, though possibly entertaining, are a waste of time. An informative book about unicorns--but do they exist ? Anthropologists have been concerned, for many years, in getting the "inside view"--the view of a culture as seen by the person within it. While Barzini is indisputable Italian, he tries to visualize Italians as seen by foreign visitors, then explain to those of us not lucky enough to travel there, why they are as visitors see them, or why they are not as foreigners may think. This is not a successful gambit. Cultures are based on many general factors--like history, socio-economic patterns, religion, family, etc.---but the specific results are just that, specific. Barzini covers many topics--the importance of spectacle and giving an illusion of something rather than actually having that quality; the family vs. the state; Italian modes of achieving success; the north-south split; Sicily and the Mafia; and last, the tragedy of Italy's long domination by foreigners. But nothing really connects. There are only superficial, scattered impressions, nothing very concrete to grasp. The reader is left with a handful of stereotypes. Barzini is at his best when describing the lives and modus operandi of particular characters in Italian history. These sections were well-written and interesting. But his portrayal of Italian "character" is fuzzy, contradictory, and ultimately, unconvincing. Finally, if you are a lover of lists, you will thrill to this book, because there is a list on nearly every single page. Myself, I got pretty tired of those lists. If you want to know something useful about Italy, read another book. If you just want entertainment, which might support any stereotypes you have about Italians, then this book could be for you.
Rating:
Summary: A book about Italians or about one's prejudices about Italy?
Review: In the tradition of Victorian visitors to Italy, whose books say more about the authors' prejudices than about the topics at hand, Barzini's account tells us about his own, middle class Italian, prejudices toward the rest of the country. He has more information available, of course, than a foreigner can ever have had, but his account is basically anecdotical at best, and often forces the facts he does report to fit his preconceived points of view. When he writes about the southern problem, for instance, he has to disregard many of the facts he himself includes (and the many more he doesn't include, of course) to conclude, appallingly, that it is all a 'mentality' problem. In conclusion, it can be an interesting reading for people already very familiar with Italy and Italians, as they will be able to spot the many inconsistencies, while at the same time enjoying the anectodes, some of them pretty entertaining. If you know nothing about Italy, this is a very misleading, personal, and somewhat prejudiced view of Italy on the whole, which will not help you to know better nor Italy nor her people.
Rating: 
Summary: A classics
Review: It`s a classic book - and you can hardly add anything to it. Though it`s a little dated, it`s still worth reading.
Rating: 
Summary: An historical witty approach
Review: Much has been written on Italians, but nobody to the best of my knowledge has ever taken an historical scholar examination of the process combined with a very good sense of humor. I must say that in the book I have fully discovered and learnt all my people's negative and positive sides. This has been done with a lot of "wit" and humor.
Rating:
Summary: Finally, an intelligent book on Italy!
Review: The world is full of books on Italy. Unfortunately, a lot of these are written by foreigners whose well-meaning observations are usually pretty mundane and often the product of some Summer holiday spent in Tuscany. Discussing the national character is not common in Italy (except of course when it's done with the ritual pessimism).Given the small number of books on the subject, Barzini's book has much to recommend it. For starters, it was written by an actual Italian and concentrates on what makes Italians "tick" rather than on the more traveloguey aspects of the matter. Other writers have tried this, notably Tim Parks but Barzini attempts to explain Italy rather then merely observing it. Although this could be a reasonably dry subject, the book is written in a fun, somewhat raffish style which never really drags. The author spent a lot of his time in the USA and many of his observations are interesting from an typically anglo saxon point of view. To be fair, I DO have some reservations about this book. The main problem is that, having been written in 1964 the text is somewhat dated. The Italy described by Barzini is one of poverty and illiteracy and these days that world has (thankfully) faded pretty much from the picture. You can see a bit of Barzini's Italy in 1950s/60s Hollywood films such as "The Roman Holidays" and "It Happened in Naples". As another reviewer has pointed out, customs have also changed. Divorce, which Barzini found unthinkable, has been legal in italy for quite a long time. On the other hand, a lot of his observations remain true and accurate. It takes a good long time for national character to change and a lot of what Barzini described still peeps out from behind modern day Italy. I think that the best way to read this book is not so much with a grain of salt, but rather with a large glass of water in order to dilute the author's conclusions a little. The *substance* of the book is still accurate, it's just a little faded with time.
Rating:
Summary: This book explained so much!
Review: This book explained so much! I highly recommend this book to anyone who has spent time in Italy and come away with questions. This book is not for armchair travel. It will not transport you. What it will do is identify what one Italian writer sees as "Italian traits" and then, in a somewhat academic way, pose some interesting ideas by way of explanation. As an American living all over Italy I have been a student, a working woman, a guest, and yes, a tourist. Long before I ever even heard of this book I was full of questions and confusing experiences. Usually I'm pretty sceptical when people set out to EXPLAIN a "national character". But here Barzini addresses the very issues I've been puzzling over. I found myself saying "YES!" and underlining passages with big exclamation points in the margins. There are two reasons I don't give this book 5 stars. Barzini's florid writing style just doesn't appeal to me. Also, while a lot of this book spoke to my own experience, I wondered how much of the rest is dated. I give it four stars but I think it's possible to pick and choose chapters according to your interests.
Rating:
Summary: This book explained so much!
Review: This book explained so much! I highly recommend this book to anyone who has spent time in Italy and come away with questions. This book is not for armchair travel. It will not transport you. What it will do is identify what one Italian writer sees as "Italian traits" and then, in a somewhat academic way, pose some interesting ideas by way of explanation. As an American living all over Italy I have been a student, a working woman, a guest, and yes, a tourist. Long before I ever even heard of this book I was full of questions and confusing experiences. Usually I'm pretty sceptical when people set out to EXPLAIN a "national character". But here Barzini addresses the very issues I've been puzzling over. I found myself saying "YES!" and underlining passages with big exclamation points in the margins. There are two reasons I don't give this book 5 stars. Barzini's florid writing style just doesn't appeal to me. Also, while a lot of this book spoke to my own experience, I wondered how much of the rest is dated. I give it four stars but I think it's possible to pick and choose chapters according to your interests.
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